Category Archives: Stash Busting

Fabric: Around 3 metres of “Provencal Blossom” quilting cotton from Spotlight, on sale for $5.60 per metrePattern:Style 1077Year: 1976Notions: Some scraps of interfacing for the collarTime to complete: 4 hoursFirst worn: To work todayWear again? YepTotal cost: ~$16.80Baby bump: 16 weeks

Over at the Sew Weekly last week, the theme was the Pantone Spring 2012 colour palette. Due to having a low-energy pregnancy week last week, I didn’t get my dress finished in time for the challenge, but it’s all done now, and likely to be on high rotation in my wardrobe for the next month until my bump is too big for it!

Ah, the Pantone Spring 2012 palette…. So many gorgeous colours…. I must admit, I had a hard time choosing which one to go for. As usual, the final decision came down to what was in my stash that happened to be right for the challenge. (One of these days I’ll come across a challenge I have no stash fabric for. Heck knows what will happen at that point – my mind shies away from the idea in horror.)

Every year, when I make the trek down South to visit family for Christmas, my mother and I wander into Spotlight a day or two after Christmas to check out their sale. And despite my best intentions, I tend to buy fabric then. Quite a lot of fabric, usually. (Why is it that the Dunedin Spotlight store has far better sale fabrics than the Wellington Spotlight store?!?) Last Christmas, I picked up this blue and yellow vintage floral print craft cotton. Sure, blue floral isn’t usually my thing, but a blue this vivid? Well, it was calling my name and kept jumping in front of the other fabric bolts I was kneeling on the floor surrounded by. (Lets just say it was a Very Good sale. They were marking down heaps of the craft cottons while we were there. Bliss.) With the blue and the yellow in the fabric, I figure it’s a good enough match for the Sodalite blue and the Solar Power yellow in the Pantone palette.

What with the whole pregnancy thing, the patterns I make have been changing quite a bit lately. (Turns out nipped-in-waists of 1950’s dresses don’t work so well with a baby bump. Who would have thought it?) This is the second mid-70’s, loose-fitting-with-belted-waist dresses I’ve made this year (the other being my Braveheart dress), and can I just say – they are awesome for this stage in pregnancy. Roomy enough for a bump, without swimming on you like a lot of maternity wear can at this point. Can be cinched in with a belt, so still have shape (even if that shape does tend to be cinched somewhat higher than your waist). And they’re not actually maternity wear, so can also be worn post-baby-arrival, meaning you haven’t spent hours and hours making something that you’ll only wear for around 3 months. Perfect, no?

Style 1077 was nice and easy to put together. A few tucks, a bit of a collar, and you’re done. Not even any fastenings to worry about. (Somehow I managed to not notice the lack of fastenings in this pattern until I’d nearly finished it. Which is just as well, as I probably wouldn’t have made it if I’d known, due to a history of getting stuck in garments with no zip or similar across the shoulders.) It pulls on over the head nicely, and cinches in quite well. I like the tuck details as well, and the rounded yoke at the back.

Why “Autumn Skies” for this dress? Well, we’re now well into Autumn here, and that tends to bring vivid blue skies. And everything’s changing colour and going yellow and brown, so I figured yellow flowers sort of imply that. In a way.

Oh, like my new cardigan? I’ve wanted a mustard coloured cardigan for ages and spotted this one on Friday. I think it’s destined to become one of my favourites. It felt rather odd buying it brand-new (not something I tend to do at all and it’s been a resolution not to buy new clothes for the last few years now) but I’ve never seen one second-hand and haven’t found suitable fabric in the right colour either, so I gave in to the powers of consumerism. *hangs head in shame* I love this cardi though, so the guilt isn’t too bad. 😉

Since it was rather cold back in the days of that challenge, I made a dress instead. But finally, with the “free for all” challenge and the onset of summer, the time of the red shorts had arrived!

I had under a metre of red cotton drill left from a dress I made earlier this year, and Simplicity 6946 in my stash promising that it would make a pair of shorts with less than a metre of fabric. With a combination like that, clearly these shorts were meant to be.

I decided on version 1 of the shorts – “hip huggers” (which in the mid-1970’s meant just below your belly button. Somewhat different to the barely-staying-up-they’re-cut-so-low hip-huggers these days). In fact, even being “hip huggers” I still used a 15cm zip. Which is about twice as long as that used in low-rise shorts you find in shops over here. Them waistlines, they just keep on droppin’.

The Pattern
This pattern was super easy to make up. Easy to cut, easy instructions to follow, fast to make. Gotta love it!

I did do a few alterations though. After my experience with the Spring Rain trousers I knew that the crotch depth would be too short on me, so I added about 5/8th of an inch at front and back to make it longer. Which worked perfectly – they sit pretty much exactly where I want them to. Yay!

I also had to do a sway back adjustment – I got lazy and didn’t try them on until the waistband had been sewn on (note: don’t do this, it’s asking for trouble), and then discovered they gaped hugely in the centre back. So my mother’s trusty quick-unpick got to work and I took them in by 1cm in the centre back (well, I moved the seam by 1cm, so taken in by 2cm in total), angling the adjustment down to meet the original seam about 1/3rd of the way down the shorts.

The Verdict
I’m not a shorts wearer. Not normally, and I haven’t been in years. I live in skirts and dresses during the summer months. (And the winter months. All year ’round, really.) But lets face it – at times, shorts are rather practical to have in your wardrobe. (Camping, hiking, gardening, pretty much anything that involves crouching down in the outdoors or going places where hems of skirts and dresses can get covered in mud or caught on bushes.) And you know what? With their nod to the 1970’s, I think I actually quite like these shorts! (Yes, this does come as quite a surprise to me. Making these was an experiment, really.)

Sadly they don’t fit quite right though. I made them with a waist 2″ smaller than what my measurements are at the moment, and yet they’re still too big around the waist. I don’t know quite what happened there, anyone got any ideas? Anyway, I’m going to take the waistband off, take them in by about 2″ all around, then recut and attach a new waistband (which I just, barely, have enough red drill left to do – yay!). I’m also going to slope them in a bit – the legs are quite wide, and I think could do with being taken in just a couple of centimetres. What do you reckon? (I’m still a bit undecided about that one.)

I do like where the waist sits on these – not too high, but not low like current designs are where I keep worrying I’ll show off my knickers if I sit down (not a good look really, no?). And they have pockets – pockets are awesome. Always.

I’m thinking I may even make another pair. Perhaps in a cute orange or brown corduroy, for a real 1970’s style?

The Name
Easy naming this time – they’re bright red and it’s Christmas time. They’re shorts, and Christmas “down under” (i.e. in Australia and New Zealand) is summer. Christmas on the beach, anyone?

The Photos
Steve and I took these photos when we were down visiting my parents in Evansdale over Christmas. (We just got back today. In fact, we took these photos this morning, on a final walk over there little farm down there.) My parents live just north of Dunedin, in a semi-rural area, on a little 14 acre (or thereabouts) farm. It’s where I grew up – with lots of space to run around in, and views of the ocean and the hills. I love going back there – it’s nice to be out of the city and back closer to nature for a while.

These are taken on one of the central paddocks on their farm, with lovely views out towards Blueskin Bay and Waitati (a nearby village where I went to primary school).

Steve’s been playing with the ‘toy camera’ setting on one of his cameras. I like how the photos come out with it – a bit retro, a bit fun. You may see more with this setting in the future…..

The Story
My mother presented me with this cute fabric a while back. It’s light purple, with white polka dots and pictures of cakes all over it! How cute is that?!? The purple challenge seemed like a very good excuse to finally turn it into the dress it’s been waiting to be.

Only problem was, I only had 2 metres. I went hunting through my stash, and dug out this vintage Druleigh pattern. How cute is that cuff around the top? <

I figured I could use the cuff to break up the purple cake-ness of the fabric, and add a sash belt to provide a bit more contrast.

Sadly though, when I went to use the pattern, I found that 5 of the 15 pieces were missing. *sob!* Don’t you hate it when that happens?😦 Both skirt pieces were missing, so I had to compromise. (Admittedly, I would have had to do this anyway, since I didn’t have enough fabric for the full gathered skirt.) I pulled out one of my tested patterns, and modified the skirt of it to fit onto the fabric by overlapping the edges of the gored sections (so I only had a front section and two back sections, instead of seven gored sections) and then narrowing the skirt’s flare by rotating one of the overlapping sections inwards towards the other one. (If that makes any sense at all?) I barely managed to get it out of the fabric, but manage it I did!

As to why I called it the ‘Ladies a Plate’ dress? Over here, it used to be a common thing that when you got an invite to a party, it said ‘Ladies a Plate’, meaning that you should take a plate of food with you. Since this dress has cakes all over it, I’ll be wearing it to any ladies afternoon teas and taking a plate of cupcakes to match it.🙂

The Pattern
I did my usual small bust adjustment on the bodice, and this time got rid of the side dart (leaving just the dart that goes up from the waist). Nice ‘n easy. I also adjusted it to get rid of the buttons and replace them with an invisible zip instead.

Surprisingly, the bodice of this is very loose up the top. I’m pretty certain I adjusted everything correctly (in fact, I KNOW I did), yet I still had to take it in by 2.5cm on each side seam. Yes, that’s a total of 10cm around the upper bust. Two full sizes, in fact! Not quite sure what happened there…..

The pattern itself was reasonably easy to put together. Very very minimal on the instructions, and I couldn’t quite figure out how they were doing the cuff and facing, so I just invented my own way of doing it instead. Next time, I think I’ll persevere with their instructions, as I suspect it’ll end up a bit neater at the top. There’s a lot of ease given on the shoulder straps length – I’ve probably got around 10cm on each strap hidden inside the bodice, so no need to worry about running out of length.

The Verdict
I like it.

Steve doesn’t.

When I wandered into the lounge holding a partially-made dress, he looked at it like it was a dead rat and asked “What is that purple thing?” “It’s my new dress!” “It’s hideous.” Clearly, not love at first sight.

Or at second sight, for that matter. When presented with the finished dress, I had the following comments directed at it:
“You look like some sort of Japanese maid.”
“It’s like a full body apron.”
“You’re a cartoon character.”

Is it wrong that I have no problems wearing a dress that apparently makes me look like a Japanese cartoon character maid? I’m tempted to wear stripy tights with it, just to add to the cartoon nature of the thing…..

The Pattern
I made a couple of small adjustments to this pattern. I did my usual small bust adjustment, which in this case meant I removed the upper one of the two side bust darts. I replaced the lapped zip with an invisible zip (I do love me some invisible zips). And I decided I didn’t want boning anywhere near a light summer singlet top, so didn’t bother putting it in. Since I wasn’t using boning, I didn’t line the top either, and instead adding facing around the top, which I made by using the top of the bodice pattern pieces as a base and then simply cutting 7cm from the top of the bodice piece. (If that makes sense?)

The pattern was nice and easy to put together. For once, turning the straps around the right way didn’t involve lots of swearing and cursing. Probably because the fabric is so soft it behaved admirably. (Except for down the side with the invisible zip, where the stripes just flat-out refused to line up properly. Since the fabric is a reasonably loose weave and quite well-worn, I didn’t want to risk making holes in it by unpicking the zip and trying again, so I’m just going with the not-quite-lined-up stripes.)

This top fits really well – it’s wonderfully shaped around the waist and hips, so it sits nice and flat under skirts. Just what I needed in my wardrobe for summer, in fact! I suspect I’ll make it again in another fabric…..

The one adjustment I’d make if I do make it again is a small alteration at the top of the bodice – taking it in about 1.5cm in either side seam, as it’s just slightly too loose there.

The Photos
Summer keeps teasing us at the moment. One day it’s a beautiful warm 28 degrees (celcius). Then the next we’re having to wrap up in coats and turn heaters on instead. Since I’m dreaming of it being summer properly, and this top is made from a duvet cover, it’s the ‘Summer Dreaming’ top.

And since it’s cold and wet tonight, standing by a window and dreaming of summer seemed somewhat appropriate…….

Disclaimer
Yes, I’m really late with this challenge. 4 days late, in fact! Wanna know why? It all comes down to my having run out of 40cm invisible zips in pale colours. And today was the first day I could get to the fabric store. That’s right, for the want of a zipper the timeframe was shot. (To be said to the tune of ‘for the want of a nail a horseshoe was lost’. I’m just going to assume you all know that rhyme.)

The Theme
This week’s Sew Weekly theme is Do Over: “This week we revisit a pattern or theme from the past year that we want to have another go at. Whether a failure or a success the first time around, it’s time for a little sewing déjà vu.”

The Facts

Fabric: around 3 metres of blue floral something-or-other synthetic, ~$3 from Fabric-a-brac, and around 3 metres of yellow lining, ~$2, also from Fabric-a-brac

The Story
I had so many ideas for this challenge! So many things I’ve made this year that I wanted to try again, either because I loved them so much, or because something hadn’t gone quite so well (poor fabric choice, forgetting the small bust adjustment, fitting issues, etc) and I wanted to try again.

Thanks to the lovely ladies who helped me decide what to make this time when I couldn’t decide on my own: Ange, Mon, Liz and Meg. You girls are awesome! 🙂

I picked up this fabric from the last Fabric-a-brac event a few weeks ago. I have no idea what it is (while I can usually identify natural fibres, synthetics are beyond me). It looks vintage, it’s lightweight and floaty and drapes well and has quite a lot of movement on the bias, and it’s a little bit sheer. Nope, I’ve got no idea at all. But I know I liked it and at $6 for 4-5 metres, how could I say no? It was rather interesting to sew, though – lots of movement on the bias so I had to anchor it with lots of pins. It made for slow going.

Since it was a bit sheer, I fully lined it in a soft yellow lining. It makes it look happy and warm and sunny inside.

I did my usual adjustment and moved the side zip to the back to turn it into an invisible centre back zip instead. Which also meant I don’t need the shoulder snaps, so I’m going to hand-sew the shoulder side down to the neckline.

Notice that it isn’t quite finished yet? I’ve got to go up to Auckland for work later this week, so thought I’d save all the hand sewing to do on the plane and at the airport. Hey, I’ve stitched up a blind hem on a bus before, may as well add to the sewing travel adventures and do the same thing on a plane.

The Verdict
I like the way this fabric drapes – it works a lot better with the drapes in this pattern than the cotton I used the first time I made it for the Leaves and Hats dress. The fabric pattern is a bit too busy to see all the drape and gather details, but it was the best choice from my fabric stash so too bad.

Sssssh, don’t tell anyone but I made a bit of a boo-boo with the lining on the skirt. Somehow I accidently did the front of the lining around the wrong way and didn’t notice until it was too late. It can just be our little secret though – I figure most people won’t be examining the inside of this dress.

It feels a little odd, having a semi-fitted bodice when I usually go for the rather fitted ones. Guess I’ll just have to wear it a few times and get used to it. Oh, what a hardship. 😉

Overall, I think this one’s a winner. It’ll be a good summer dress, and best of all, it goes with my foam-green shoes that hardly go with anything in my wardrobe. Yay!

The Story
When I think ‘Pin Up’, I think of the art of Elvgren. I’ve always been fond of his work – lots of cute girls in cute outfits, being “accidently caught out” in various embarrassing situations. So it seemed only right to dig up a calendar of his work I had from a couple of years ago, and flick through it, looking for inspiration.

I was tossing up between two of his images: Spotty Performance (from 1962) and Class Dismissed (from 1969). I decided to go with Spotty Performance, simply because I’ve been planning on making a red skirt for ages.

Problem number one – turns out I don’t have any red fabric suitable for a pencil skirt. Hmmm. Ok, change of plans – same outfit, blue colour scheme instead.

Problem number two – turns out I didn’t have quite enough of this light blue fabric for a shirt. Ok, change of plans (again) – I’ll make up a top instead of a shirt.

Problem number three – I then completely ran out of time to make the skirt to go with it. The bright blue skirt is now languishing in my UFO-and-mending-pile, waiting for it’s chance one Mending Pile Monday. I’m sure it’s time in the sun will come soon.

Since what I ended up making wasn’t bearing any resemblance to the original outfit at all, I decided to imitate both inspiration images in the photos, instead. 🙂

Here’s the originals, followed by my imitations…..

Class Dismissed, 1969

"Eek! A mouse!"

Spotty Performance, 1962

"Oh no! Imaginary ink!"

I played around with Picnik to adjust the photos and make them a bit more ‘vintage-y’, by using tips in this wonderful tutorial from See Cate Create. Lots of fun! I see a whole new world of image manipulation opening up in front of me….. mmmmm…….

Fabric: around 1 metre of crinkly chiffon-looking synthetic something-or-other, $4 and (as per usual) been in my stash for at least 4 years

Pattern: self-drafted

Year: 2011

Notions: none, coz this fabric stretches a bit in each direction

Time to make: about 40 mins. If that. May have been more like half an hour, even

Will I wear it? Yep, I sure will!

Total cost: ~$4

The Story
Guess what? I like the colour orange. Have done for many years now, even. Back when I was going through my ‘colour phase’ (yes, I used to be brighter than I am now) and was just getting into sewing, I made myself a pair of bright orange super-flared trousers. I wore those puppies for years, until they pretty much fell apart and had paint spashes all over them. (I didn’t wear them with black, either. When I say I went through a ‘colour phase’, I mean that – for a few years, there was nothing black, white, or even grey in my wardrobe. I paired bright yellow skirts with turquoise tops and red shoes. Lime green skirts with pink and purple. The aforementioned orange flares with, well, everything. And I topped it all off with dreadlocks – some dark brown (my actual hair colour, which hasn’t been seen for quite some time now), some bright red, some orange, some pink, some purple. Ah, university life. Good times.)

Anyway. Fast-forward to the present day. I’m still rather fond of colour (in case you can’t tell). I’m also still rather fond of orange (although I doubt I’ll ever again wear bright orange flares *shudder*). I even have lots of orange in my wardrobe. (And had orange hair a few weeks back, too.) But it turns out there is one thing I’m lacking – orange fabric. Which took me by surprise, yes indeed it did. Plenty of pink fabric everywhere, quite a lot of green to choose from, but orange? Not so much. Hmmmm. Maybe I’ve just used it all already…..

This crinkly looks-a-bit-like-chiffon-but-isn’t-at-all fabric was wanting to be made into a dress. But I couldn’t decide what sort of dress, so it became a top instead. (I may yet make it into a dress as well – I’ve got a good 5 metres or so left of it. Plenty to experiment with.)

I made it a decent length, so it could be worn with jeans, or tucked into a circle skirt (Hummingbird skirt, I’m looking at you!)

I felt like making the sleeves a bit different, so cut them on an angle at the bottom. And just for the heck of it, I made it with only two pieces, and didn’t even hem any of the edges coz you know what? I didn’t need to with this fabric, and with all the amount of hand sewing I’ve been doing lately, it amused me to take the super-easy route with this top. So all it needed was four seams done with the overlocker, and finished off by flipping the top over at each end of the seam and backtracking, for a nice neat finish that won’t unravel.

So, there we have it! One orange floral top.

The name and photos
Nothing exciting for the photos this time round – Wellington is in the grip of the equinox gales, so venturing outside wasn’t looking too appealing. (This time of year is always a good test to see how well your roof is fastened to your house. So far, so good. Not so good for a friend’s rotary washing line, which got blown over and halfway down their lawn today. Did I mention this winds are strong this time of year? So rather than another photo shoot with my outfit wrinkling and my hair defying gravity, it’s an indoor shot this week. (Notice how tiny the door is behind me? Both of the upstairs bedrooms have doors that small, complete with little angled corner to fit under the eaves. I reckon they’re cute, if a bit tricky to get furniture through at times.)

Why the ‘orange sherbert’ top? Well, it’s orange. And I’ve always been amused by that scene in Austin Powers were the security guy goes and gets him some ‘orange sher-bert’ (said in a slow-drawn-out manner, hence the spelling above).